Born For The Dark Prince
by ThievesOverBullies
Summary: A/U A mysterious Count has a secret he has been hiding, one Lady Regina Mills is determined to find out.
1. Chapter 1

_**(A/N-Special thanks for Bekki for beta reading this. You are amazing and I thank you so much!)**_

 _ ***No disclaimer needed as I helped create Outlaw Queen***_

Lord Robin of Locksley had decided!

He had chosen her weeks earlier, at the time of the fall harvest. She was sturdy of limb and solid of body, and went about her tasks with the slow moving grace typical of her peasant ancestry. Last week, he had learned that she was called Marian, a common name around here.

Robin studied her from afar, always from the protection of the shadows, trying to decide if her character was calm as her appearance. The last thing he needed was a woman possessed of too much imagination. He wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to control his impulse to mate. Even so, despite the cresting urgency of his need, he was unwilling to slake his thirst for sexual release at the risk of almost certain death for his partner.

Once the decision was made that Marian would be the one, he found himself praying to a god he only believed in periodically. The words poured from him unbidden as he prepared to sleep. Please god, he whispered in the cruel, blinding light of dawn. Let her survive the mating. Let her accept me and live.

If he had dared, he would have prayed for her to survive the birth that would inescapably follow, but Robin's god, if he existed, was a harsh one, not giving to granting his most sought after wish. Robin prayed for Marian's survival. He refused to think of the day, eleven months from the mating, when his son would be born, and Marian would die.

Her parents accepted his offer and gave their daughter by their own free will to him, honored to also serve their lord. Their questions about the precise role Marian would play in his household were stilled by Robin's coins had paid to them. He had not been shocked by their behavior. Robin had learned early on that dire poverty and strict morality could rarely blend. Hunger stilled even the most active conscience, and his teachings had trained him to take advantage of this human weakness. The Vampire survived in large part due to human frailty.

Marian had adapted well to her new home, and he decided that she was indeed, a suitable candidate for a successful mating. He chose the night of their joining with care, waiting for the moon to ebb, and a rush of thunderstorms to pass.

He looked forward to the moment when he could notify the Council Elders that he had mated again, and that the human female had survived it. He knew such an experience was rare, and he anticipated boasting of his success at the next regional gathering of Vampires.

The night appointed for their joining arrived slowly. Marian came to him shortly before the midnight hour, bathed and clothed by his housekeeper in a traditional green silk robe, dyed the color of the Vampire sun.

Earlier he had heard her screams as she had been washed thoroughly to remove the grime from her. Horrifying, her screams had excited him, and he felt the tingle of desire explode in the sensitive sacs already beginning to bulge in the roof of his mouth.

Robin made himself calm down. He reminded himself that he was disciplined, caring and honorable. He had spent the last year training himself for this moment, amending for the death of the last female he had mounted. There would be no mishaps tonight, he had vowed to himself on numerous occasions. He would prove that humans who mated with Vampires could survive it.

The candles flickered in a draft of air blowing in through a crack in the casement window of his bedroom. Marian shifted nervously from foot to foot as she stared at him. Even after her bathing, her skin was still dark from the years of exposure to the rays of the sun. Robin visualized her darkness against his pallor and again the desire he felt, powerful, delicious, raced through him.

"Do not be afraid of me," he said, trying to speak softly and not sure if he succeeded. He moistened his dry lips. "Come closer, my dear. I promise that I will be very gentle with you." Even to his own ears, the promise sounded false to him, although he made it in total sincerity.

Slowly she edged toward him, her bare feet silent on the floor. He realized as she approached that she was shivering, her teeth clattering, her body convulsing. He hoped it was from the cold. God, how he hoped it was from the cold and not from fear of him. Hadn't he determined that from all the time spent studying her, that she was the one least likely to be overcome by irrational fear?

He drew her to him, running his hands over her face, pressing his erection against the softness of her belly. Desire seeped into every pore of his skin and every cell of his body. The saliva gathered in his mouth, bathing the buds that shielded his fangs in the fluid of sexuality. He felt the sacs swell with exquisite premonition of urgency. He swallowed, forcing himself back under control.

He realized that he was trembling, just like Marian. The knowledge soothed him. Perhaps, like him, she was shivering from the onset of desire. Human females were capable of feeling desire, a study had been proven years back. It was another human trait that he had been trained to take advantage of.

But Robin didn't want to take advantage of Marian. He wanted to mate with her, that was all. "Why are you shivering?" he asked, "Are you cold?"

"No, lord," her voice cracked with fear, and Robin felt a surge of rage. What was she frightened of? Why did she tremble? He hadn't done anything to her yet. Nothing, that is, safely stroke her cheek with gentle fingers.

If she was determined to wallow in irrational fears, there was little point in delaying further. Better to proceed and permit her to see that those fears were without foundation. He carried her over to the bed, and laid her against the pillows, stroking her hair from her dark eyes with tender fingers. He was proud of his self-control, proud of the fact he was able to resist the growing urge to lie down on top of her and sink his fangs deep into the gloriously tempting column of her throat. Reining in his rampant desire, he ran his hands across her breasts, parting the green mating robe, baring the sturdy outline of his body to his heated gaze.

The moment of irritation broke the hold he had maintained over his state of arousal. In a single surge of overwhelming force, his fangs expanded and broke through the sacs containing them, just as he felt the pressure of his erection build to a level that demanded immediate release.

Marian saw his fangs at the same time she felt him press against the barrier of her virginity. She screamed in terror, a mindless cry that echoed and reechoed throughout his bedchamber. He felt her fear, absorbed it into himself through every one of his senses, vaguely aware that he no longer resented her fright, but actually welcomed it. The smell of her terror was the most potent aphrodisiac he had ever known, beyond anything he could have dreamed of in his most erotic youthful fantasy. He was swamped with the need to possess, to penetrate, to procreate.

Robin thrust deep into Marian's body, holding her hands above her head high, and falling upon her neck with a hunger that could not have been equaled by a lifetime of fasting. His fangs thrust deep into the skin of her throat and slipped into the smooth cartilage of her jugular. Ahh, what bliss! Her blood flowed warm, sweet and ambrosial over his tongue. He swallowed the exquisite nectar, drinking in her fragile essence as he thrust into her body, filling her with his seed. How wonderful it was that such a delight should also produce the happiness of a son, an heir, a Vampire child that Robin would love and cherish, the grandson his other father had craved for so long.

The spasms of pleasure slowly ended, the ripples of his release convulsing him over and over again. The joining complete, he collapsed panting onto the limp body of his mate. He felt a great tenderness for her, even though she was a peasant girl. Mindful of his weight, he rolled away from her, drawing in great lungful's of refreshing air.

Still spent from the force of his mating, he made her a silent promise. During the next eleven months, he would see that she was afforded every possible kindness and luxury. He would tend to her needs, humor her slightest whim and shower her family with money. He owed her that much at least. As for the birth, he would not think of it.

"Marian," he said, staring into the comforting darkness. "Marian, I am indebted to you for the gift of your body. Ask for what reward you wish and I will try to give it to you."

She didn't reply. Overwhelmed by a sudden dreadful premonition, he rolled over and gazed down at the woman who had been his mate.

As soon as he turned, he saw the hideous wounds in her neck, the gaping slashes around which blood was already congealing in pathetic patches of sticky red. The euphoria of his mating dissipated into an icy sensation of dread.

"Marian!" Her name rasped in his throat as he worked frantically to repair the damage wrought equally by his fangs and his mindless lust. He willed her to wake up, to survive the crimes he had wrought upon her terrified body. He tried to release his fangs again so that he could pour life storing fluid of sexual mating into her body, in exchange for the blood he had sucked from her with such reckless abandon. But his fangs had shriveled and retracted inside their protective sacs, and he knew it would be days, perhaps weeks, before that regenerated again.

Still, he could not bring himself to acknowledge the fatal finality of what he had done. He worked on her lifeless body for hours, striving with every art known to humankind and to the Vampire to return life to her lifeless body. In the end, as the sun rose and infiltrated the sanctuary of his bedchamber, he was forced to admit the truth. He had murdered Marian. Worse yet, in his hearts of hearts, he had always known that the inevitable result of his mating would be precisely this, a human female, ordered no meaningful choice, surrendering her life to satisfy the sexual needs of an arrogant Vampire.

He had been a crass, conceited fool, Robin decided. He was still young, barely a century old, and it usually took three or four hundred matings before a Vampire could control his lust sufficiently to mate successfully. Even then, accidents did occur, and the rate of impregnation was unreliable. Still, Robin could not forgive himself. His youth and sexual inexperience might partly explain, but could never excuse, the willful arrogance of his behavior. Marian had not deserved to die, even in the noble cause of creating a new generation of Vampire. Her life had a worth and value he was not at liberty to ignore.

In his efforts to revive Marian, he had sewn up the jagged wounds in her throat, bathing the ripped flesh in his own to speed up the creation of new tissue. He had not been able to bring her back to life, but so great was the regenerative power of Vampire blood, that the loosen edges of her skin had knit together, hiding the evidence of the death he had caused. It would be quite easy to explain her death, which meant that he wouldn't have to leave. For that, he was glad. He had grown fond of this new life here, and proud of how he had turned this land that had been destitute, into a profitable vineyards for this estate. In the future, there would be no need for him to move, no need to cut the ties he had begun to make here, because no more humans would meet their deaths at his hands.

Touching the almost invisible scars on Marian's neck, Robin vowed that he would never again subject a human female to the dangers of his Vampire lust. Tonight, he had mated for the last time. He had murdered his last human female. Placing his hand on Marian's silent heart, Robin swore it.

 _The Dark Prince would never again seek a mate!_

 **(Okay, so this story will have dark moments at times, a death or two. But I promise no major character death!)**


	2. Chapter 2

_**(A/N-Special thanks for Bekki for beta reading this, appreciate it so much boo. Special thanks to those who read, follow, fav and review this story.)**_

Miss Regina Mills prided herself on possessing more than her fair share of British courage, and a positive deposition that inclined her to always look upon the brighter side of life, she got that she thinks from her father. But this day, finally, both courage and good cheer had deserted her.

The rain had been falling without letup for the past two days, and the tracks that the locals insisted upon calling roads had long since degenerated into oozing mud. From experience, she knew the sullen gray light would soon give way to impenetrable darkness, making travel hazardous to the point of madness.

Worst of all, a few minutes ago, the driver hired to take them to the Villa of the Three Fountains had suddenly stopped the carriage in the filths courtyard of a wayside inn, and refused to try to drive them any further. Regina tried to protest, but the driver had simply unhitched the horses and disappeared into the darkness of a hut behind the inn. Despite her pleas, he had refused to come out, and the three extremely tired travelers had no other choice but to seek refuge in the tavern.

Her father and her maid Sharon walked in and looked around the taproom, met the hostile gaze of the inn keeper, and tried her best not to feel terrified. She would not surrender to hysterics just because they were lost, stranded in a hovel that barely deserved the name of the inn, abandoned in a remote region of Italy hovering on the brink of war at any moment.

The inn keeper watched them in calculating silence as they shook the worst of the rain from their cloaks and hoods and settled in the taproom. He now inches from behind the counter and bowed very low, his manner a strange mixture of hostility and submissive courtesy.

"Most gracious to you all, how many I be of service?" he asked in thick dialect.

"We need to hire a new carriage driver for the rest of our journey," Regina answered in standard Italian, hoping he would understand.

His eyes gleamed as he rubbed his hands, "Most honored and excellent, signora, I am at your service." His voice tailed away and he looked pointedly at her purse.

Regina sighed. They had very little money left now, and she was becoming desperate. She pulled a crown from the tiny travel pouch hidden at her waist and held it up.

The inn keeper snatched at the coin, and she moved it just out of his reach at the last second, aware that she'd taken a grave risk by letting him see that she carried money on her person. The poverty they had witnesses during the past week had been so appalling that she had lived in daily expectation of being murdered for their money.

She was shaking inside, but she forced herself to show no fear, "To earn this crown, you must tell me how to reach the Villa of the Three Fountains. You must also provide me with a driver who can take us there."

If she had not been watching so closely to make sure that he understood her Italian, she might not have noticed the tiny shudder, and the flicker of his eyelids at the mention of the villa. Then his expression shuttered and he bowed, shaking his head regretfully.

"I beg your forgiveness, but there is no one here who can take you to the villa, signora," he said.

With extreme reluctance, she reached into her pouch and extracted a golden guinea. The inn keeper's eyes bulged at the sight of the shiny coin. His hands clenched at his sides and he licked his lips, "Is that really gold, signora?"

"Yes, it's a British golden guinea, and it can be yours. To earn it, you have simply to drive me and my two companions to the Villa of the Three Fountains."

A bead of sweat popped on the inn keeper's forehead. Then he turned away, closing his eyes, as if he could scarcely beat to look at the gleaming gold. "I can't take you, I am sorry, signora I can't help you."

His words were simple, but Regina could hardly believe she'd understood the Italian correctly. For what money she had offered him, she had expected the inn keeper to vault into the driver's seat before she could finish speaking.

"What!" she said, "Of course you can take us there!"

He didn't turn around, "No signora, I can't drive. I can't take you to the Villa of the Three Fountains." Almost to himself he muttered, "I must protect my children."

Regina felt her self control begin to waver around the edges. "If you are not willing to drive, then find us someone in the village who can," she insisted.

"Alas, I can't help you, signora. There is nobody in the village who will drive your carriage," he said.

Regina bit her lip, ready to scream in frustration. Ever since their journey had began, they had been met with conspiracy of evasion and silence.

"What does the inn keeper say, Regina?" her father asked.

"He can't take us and no one will either," Regina answered.

"I believe you would be wise to spend the night here. We have a rooms in the loft, I could make it comfortable for you all," the inn keeper said.

Just then in walked two soldiers who were talking to the other, "We're almost to the villa."

"The Villa of the Three Fountains?" Regina asked them

"Yes," one said.

"How splendid, then you can take us there," Regina said.

"Is the Count of de Hood expecting you?" the soldier asked, "The Count is not...that is to say, I have not found him to be a man who receives many visitors."

"I'm sorry but there must be some mistake," Regina said, "Our destination is the Villa of the Three Fountains, but we are not familiar with anyone called the Count of de Hood." Regina said.

"But I assure you, the Count owns ze villa, he owns all ze land for miles around. You might say zat he is ze grand seigneur of the region," the soldier said.

Regina's stomach lurched with premonition of disaster. "Then we must be seeking a different villa with the same name, as my father here owns the villa, it was deeded to our ancestors many years ago."

The soldier shook his head, "You may take my word for it, signora. There is only one Villa of the Three Fountains in this area, and the estate is quite definitely owned by the Count of de Hood."

"The villa we seek has been in the hands of caretakers for over a hundred years," Regina said, "perhaps the Count of de Hood has rented the villa along with the farmland."

The soldiers stared at her in silent incredulity. "Ze Count of de Hood is not a caretaker," one assured her. "Ze villa belonged to ze count's father and his grandfather before zat. It is a place of most great prosperity, or so I have been told."

"Can you take us there so we might straighten all this out please?" Regina asked.

"Yes, signora," one soldier answered.

An hour later they were back in the carriage, when one shouted to them as they rounded another sharp curve, "The villa is straight ahead of you. There it is! The Villa of the Three Fountains!

Regina's first impression of the villa was not favorable. Set atop the crest of a low hill, its exterior washed in grey, the shuttered windows seemed to stare sightlessly into the lashing curtain of rain. As the horses headed toward the massive entrance gates, and her view became clearer, Regina decided that the layout of the house created the bleak impression that it was disconnected from the surrounding countryside, a lonely fortress set in a sea of brown fields. She wondered if the present count was responsible for the unhappy effect, or if he merely had to live with the architectural mistakes of his forebears.

They arrived at the front and were assisted by the housekeeper, an older lady named Anna, "The stable boys will take care of your horses, just like always. Here they come now."

Three youths ran into the courtyard, all of them were wearing sturdy leather shoes, an amazing luxury for this part of the world, and all of them looked well fed. The count went up a couple of notches in Regina's estimation. He might live in a dreary home, and have a strong aversion to visitors but at least it seemed that he made adequate provision for feeding and clothing his servants.

Anna the housekeeper spoke the the soldier, "Who all have you brought with you?"

"Three travelers, a Lord Henry Mills, his daughter Lady Regina and her maid Sharon," he answered.

"English women? You've brought them here?" Anna asked clearly surprised.

"Yes, that is correct-"

Anna shook her head, "Sorry, but you know they'll have to leave right away. I can't have women on the premises."

"I understand the count's rules, however they have traveled a long way," the soldier said. "Surely he can make an exception for one night."

"Rules are rules," Anna said. "They can't stay here and you know that as well as I do. They're females and the count will never allow them to sleep in the house. Especially now. This isn't a good time," she stopped abruptly, as if regretting having said as much.

Regina found the conversation so extraordinary, she wondered if she misunderstood Anna's Italian, although the woman spoke with clearness and accuracy of an educated upper servant. She couldn't believe that, even in this part of the world, the Count of de Hood, was so old fashioned that he forbade all women to enter his house.

"But what are they to do? It's late and they are foreigners and the country is about to tumble into civil war!" the soldier said.

"Then they shouldn't have left England. I'll have the stable boys give them fresh horses, there's nothing more I can do for them," Anna turned to go.

"Wait! Please wait, signora! I must talk to you!" Regina raced after the older woman.

Anna turned around and raised her eyebrows at her.

"Please reconsider your decision," Regina pleaded with her. "We have been traveling over three weeks and are in urgent need of the count's help."

"How can you need his help? I'm sure he's never met you," Anna said.

"We have papers that say we own this villa and we need to meet with the Count urgently," Regina explained.

"That's impossible, the Count and his father and grandfather before him were all born here," Anna explained.

"Please," Regina said.

"Anna!" a voice called out from inside the house. Anna walked in and reappeared minutes later.

"The Count says you may stay this night," Anna said and they were shown where they could stay, Regina with her maid and her father across the hall from them.

Later that night, Regina walked out of her room intent on looking around, she was in a study looking at the books when she sensed a presence behind her. She turned around to see a man standing in the shadows, he was tall and broad shouldered that much she could see. Just as she was about to speak, a lamp was lighted and the mysterious man was revealed to her.

The count's eyes met with her for the briefest of instants, and Regina thought she saw his jaw clench as if the mere sight of her set his teeth on edge. Why, she wondered? What could she possibly have done to provoke such a reaction? His hair was dark blonde, he had stubble on his jaw and piercing blue eyes. His skin was pale similar to hers.

As if mesmerized she watched him walk about the room. To her acute embarrassment, she realized that her gaze was fixed with most unladylike intensity on the movement of his hips, and she hastily jerked her eyes upward, toward some more polite spot.

Her gaze landed on his face and she saw his features were strongly defined. His cheekbones stood out with particular prominence, their height and sharp angles underlined by a flush of hectic color that suggested he had a fever. Perhaps she had misinterpreted the clenching of his jaw when he looked at her earlier.

He must be in some sort of pain from his expression.

"You shouldn't be out alone in the dark," the Count said.

"It's not the dark that is to be feared, just the things in the darkness," Regina countered.

She saw the white of his teeth as he smiled at her reply, "I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself, I am Count of de Hood. I believe you wish to speak with me and I hope you will tell me how I may be of service?" the Count said.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N-I want to thank a special friend Bekki for being an amazing beta, a great ear. Thanks so much boo. Also want to thank all who read, review, follow and fav.**_

* * *

The count straightened from his introductory bow. His eyes were so dark that he appeared to have no pupils making it hard to judge the precise direction of his gaze. She knew without a shadow of a doubt, that his eyes were fixed on her face. She felt his gaze travel slowly down her cheek, lingering for several agonizing seconds on the pulse throbbing in her throat, and come to rest on her breasts.

Wherever his gaze touched, her skin burned with heat. The effort of keeping her eyes averted caused her physical pain, and her stomach churned with a sensation that teetered somewhere between terror and intense yearning. The yearning grew, swamping the fear, until the urge to reach out and take his hand became almost irresistible. She shut her eyes, fighting off the compulsion to seek his touch. As soon as her eyes closed, she was assailed by the shocking image of the count lying next to her, his head resting against her naked breast, his mouth moving to suckle at her breast...

Regina snapped open her eyes and was appalled by the indecent train of her own imaginings, she realized too late that she had already acted upon one of them. Without conscious awareness, it seemed that she had reached out her hand toward the count and he had taken it into his clasp. He was now gently stroking her fingertips with his thumb, tracing caressing circles around her knuckles.

A kaleidoscope of sensations burned inside her, all of them new, all of them overwhelming in their intensity. She wanted him to carry her hand to his lips and press a passionate kiss into her palm. She wanted him to stroke not just the tips of her fingers, but every inch of her flesh. She wanted to unfasten her gown and bare her throat, her chest to his caress, his lips. She wanted...so many things she had never before dreamed of wanting.

"Milady?" his voice made her snap out of her fantasy.

"I prefer Regina," Regina said.

"Lady Regina," Robin said as his fingers stilled, then closed around her hand.

"My lord, pray release my hand." Regina murmured, her voice hoarse. Her pulse rapid.

For a split second, she thought he would ignore her request. Then he smiled slightly and let her hand down. He shut his eyes, and grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it against his mouth as if to assuage a sudden burst of pain.

Regina winced in sympathy, "Is there something I can do?" she asked in a low voice.

"No, nothing!" The count opened his eyes again, and looked at her. "I apologize. That was uncalled for."

"It's alright," Regina murmured.

"You have the most beautiful hands. Did anyone ever tell you that?" he asked.

"No, your Excellency," Regina looked away, striving for composure. The warm glow of desire began to spread over her again.

The count muttered something she couldn't quite hear. Regina thought it might have been "I mustn't do this." Do what? she wondered.

The strange longings she had been experiencing stopped as abruptly as they had began. She drew in a shaky breath, and the beat of her heart gradually slowed to normal. When she finally felt courageous enough to look at the count again, she discovered he had once more standing by the fireplace, his booted foot resting casually on the brass hearth rail, his attention fixed on his watch chain.

"It has been too many years since this house has enjoyed the pleasure of such a charming feminine presence," he said.

"Thank you, Excellency, I am delighted to be here," Regina accepted his praise with a gratified toss of her hair. She looked around sleepily. Goodness, she was tired! She yawned behind her hand and wished she could excuse herself from the room. She visualized herself in the comfort of her room, wearing only her nightgown, and lying down on the smooth linen sheets of her bed. Instantly, the count came and lay down beside her on the bed, his hands cool against her heated flesh. She reached out to stroke his silky hair and felt his body press against hers, warm and comforting. She sighed with sleepy pleasure.

Despite the darkness of their room, she could see that he was smiling, his teeth gleaming strong and white in the glow of the fireplace light. He was smiling as if he could read her thoughts! Sleepiness gave way to desire and she shivered with anticipation as his mouth lowered toward her breasts. His lips brushed her shoulders in a tender caress. She moaned with pleasure. Her skin began to burn as she felt the count's heated flesh press ever more closely against her. His mouth trailed kisses in a slow path leading toward her throat, and she ripped at her nightgown, tearing it open and baring her neck to his pleasure. His lips touched the pulse beating at the base of her neck and he pressed his mouth hard against her flesh.

For a moment, she was bathed in a peace more complete than anything she had ever known. Then, horrifying she felt the slash of a knife blade slicing into her neck. Heat and blood drained from the wound that she suddenly realized the count had inflicted. In an instant, she was deathly cold. Her teeth chattered from the cold. Dear God, she was dying!

She tried to tell the count that he was hurting her, killing her, that he must stop what he was doing, but her throat was paralyzed and she could make no sound at all. Her hands reached up, clawing at her neck, pushing the count away. The blood gushed from her wounded neck, and a dark curtain started to fall in front of her eyes. Just before the curtain cut out all sight and sound, the paralysis of her throat muscles relaxed for a fraction of a second and Regina screamed: a high, petrifying scream of pure terror.

Her father, out of his room because he couldn't sleep, heard his daughter screaming and was at her side in an instant, "Regina, what is wrong? In God's name, what happened?"

Regina blinked, then rubbed her eyes, feeling dazed and totally disoriented. Where was she? Surely to goodness she hadn't been in bed with the Count? She looked around and realized to her mortification that she was in the study, that her father was patting her hand in a vain attempt to soothe her. She looked at the count, who had walked over to one of the windows and seemed to be staring out into the gardens.

For a frightening moment as she looked at the rigid line of the count's shoulders, her vision blurred and she saw again the bed and its lacy linen pillows and their heads resting in close proximity. She fought hard for control, and the debilitating vision disappeared.

"I'm fine, it was but a passing moment of weakness, I'm sorry for scaring you," she searched for some acceptable excuse to explain her scream. "I thought I saw a mouse. It was foolish of me to make such a fuss about something so trivial."

"That is fine, now I suggest we all get back to bed," Henry said, relieved that Regina was alright.

"I wish you both a pleasant evening and a night of restful sleep," Robin said.

Regina stared for a few moments at him, before going out of the room with her father. As they made their way back, she saw Anna heading into the study they had just vacated.

"You should have left earlier," Anna said as she walked in, closing the door behind her.

"You are exhausted. You need rest. Look at you, running and fever and trying to handle those pushy visitors," Anna broke off abruptly. "How are you coping with the women? Will it be a problem tonight?"

"I'm coping...just. Fortunately, only one of them is a virgin."

"Only one. Ha! Just our luck that one of them had to be a virgin. Which one is the virgin? Not the blonde maid?"

"No, the one with brown silky hair and beautiful dark eyes."

Anna looked at him sharply. "It would be that one. She's more your type than the blonde. Are you in pain, lord?"

"I will survive. Don't fuss, Anna." He said.

"Why are they here?" Anna demanded.

"They are just stranded travelers. Nothing more, I'm sure of it." He said.

Anna only shook her head and said, "You believe the best of everyone. That's your problem."

He smiled. "I have so many problems, according to you."

"You're too trusting. The men are a danger to you," she said. "I'm sure they brought the women to test you. Get rid of them. I don't like that lieutenant."

Robin only chuckled lightly, "Anna, enough. They will all be taken care of."

Anna walked up to him and said, "Promise me something."

Ten minutes later, Regina was just getting back into bed when she heard a knock on her door, she went to open it to find Anna there, "Can I help you?"

"I have come to make sure you sleep tonight."

"Excuse me?" Regina asked.

"I'm here to sleep at your side for this night." Anna said.

"I see," Regina said quietly. "And if I wish to leave the room for any reason?"

"That won't be permitted." Anna said.

"How about tomorrow?" Regina asked.

"Tomorrow, there will be nobody more anxious to see you out of this bedroom and off the premises than me," Anna said, "Now get into bed."

As she was about to, there was a knock on her door. Scrambling to her feet, Anna pressed herself against the door, "Who is it?" she asked brusquely.

"Tis I, Hood. Let me in."

Anna shot an anxious glance toward Regina and then quickly turned her back, so that her face couldn't be seen. To Regina's amazement, the servant still didn't open the door, but spoke to the count through the door.

"No, master, you cannot come in. You know that I will not permit you to enter this bedchamber," Anna said.

The count's response was low and soft, but to Regina, his voice seemed laden with the threat of violence. "Anna, I am your master. You will obey me. Open the door!"

"No, lord." Anna's voice trembled. "I'm very sorry lord, but you must go back to your room. You promised me you would not leave your bedchamber tonight."

Silence fell thick and heavy with tension. Finally the count spoke again, his voice racked with anguish. "Anna...I can't...bear it...any...longer."

"Yes, you can, lord. You are strong." Anna spread her hands against the panels of the door, almost as if she wished she was touching her master through the wood. She spoke gently, soothingly. "Where is John, lord? Why has he left you alone?"

A second long silence ensued. "John is...sleeping."

Anna drew in a sharp, frightened breath. She shot another nervous look over her shoulder toward Regina, then leaned even closer to the door. This time, she spoke so quietly that Regina could scarcely hear the question, "Are you sure John is sleeping, lord?"

"Yes. I am sure. He sleeps, that's all. Nothing more, I swear it."

"When he wakes up, what will be remember, lord?"

"Nothing," the count snapped as if he resented being questioned. "There is nothing for him to remember," he added more temperately. "After all these years, Anna, you should know that there is nothing to fear with the men."

"Go back to your shoulders," Anna said. "Please lord, do as I say and no harm will be done this night."

"Will you come to me? Help me stay away from her?" he asked.

"Yes, lord. I will come to you." she promised.

Regina listened in disbelief the conversation she had just heard. The count demanding entrance into her bedchamber, a moment later he had pleaded with Anna like a child seeking comfort from a nightmare.

She didn't have many seconds to mull over what she'd heard. Anna swung around, her face flushed, "Well now you know the truth. My master is not well."

"I don't know anything except it seems the count suffers from um...a form of mental indisposition," Regina said.

"He suffers from a most unfortunate...mental indisposition. That is all, nothing more." She continued quickly, before Regina could interrupt with a question. "Alas, when my master succumbs to one of his spells, he cannot be trusted to behave himself as a gentleman should, when in the presence of a young lady."

"The count sounded as if he were in great pain," she said, surprised to find herself feeling an odd sympathy for him.

"He is in pain." Anna answered. "However you need not worry, his bouts of sickness last no more than a couple of days. Now I must go to him, I need you to bolt the door behind you and not leave the room."

Regina walked her out and bolted the door before Anna would leave her door. A few minutes passed and she thought over what had just happened. She felt the need to go and check on her maid Sharon, making sure she bolted her own door after she explained. Her decision made, she grabbed a robe and threw it on and headed for Sharon's room.

As she neared her room, she drew her hand up to knock on her door when a strong masculine hand reached out and grasped her wrist, holding her in a grip that was at once caressing and imprisoning. Regina went very still, then wondered fleetingly why she didn't scream. She turned around to face him.

"I knew that you would come," the count said, his voice low and husky, rich with satisfaction. "I knew that you would come to me. I have waited twenty three years. Is that not long enough to expiate my sins?"

Regina swallowed hard, "I don't understand what you are talking about, Excellency."

"You are here now, and that is all that matters. I must taste you," he said, reaching out with his other hand, Regina saw he trembled. She knew, with an instinct that went beyond reason, that he shook with the intensity of his longing for her.

* * *

 _ **HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL! ALMOST :)**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**(A/N-Special thanks to Bekki for beta reading this, loved your reaction to this chapter. And ty for those who read, review, follow and fav this.)**_

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"Excellency, you must not do this."

"On the contrary, I must. Forgive me, Regina." He drew her closer, but he didn't enfold her in his arms, or crush her mouth with kisses. Instead, with infinite gentleness, he traced the outline of her cheek, drew his fingers down over the point of her chin and along her throat. His fingers paused at the pulse throbbing at the base of her neck, and she felt a yearning emanate from him, a yearning so intense she feared for a moment that she might swoon under its force.

"You feel what I feel," the count whispered. "It has never been like this before. I can see inside your mind as if you were a Vampire."

As if she was what? A shudder convulsed her body but it was a shudder of longing, not of loathing. Her skin tingled with sensitivity, each tiny grain of flesh exploding with sensations a hundred times more intense, a thousand times more compelling, than anything she had known before. Her breasts ached, throbbing with a need that was entirely new to her. She stared at the count in a silent request, pleading with him to explain what was happening to her.

He didn't answer her with words, just cupped her face in his hands and stared deep into her eyes. "You are ready for me, aren't you?" he murmured. "Without touching you, without any drugs or potions, your mind has opened to me. God in heaven, it is a miracle that you came here at the time of my cresting. I burn for you, Regina."

She was a virtuous woman, raised to have high moral principles. She didn't understand all that he was saying, but she knew she should turn her back on him and run screaming from the room. And yet she did not. Rather, she reached up and returned his caress, running the tips of her fingers over his hauntingly beautiful face and feeling her entire body thrum with the pleasure and excitement of touching him.

Deep inside her, she felt an ache of bitter emptiness, a longing for fulfillment so intense that her senses spun. Beneath her fingers, she felt his cheeks distend and grow harder. She brushed her thumbs over his skin. Standing on tiptoes, she pressed her lips against the strange swelling along his cheek bones.

For a split second, for an infinite moment out of time, she felt his joy, shared in his ecstasy. Then, with a terrible cry, he flung her from him with a force great enough to carry several feet from him.

"No!" he roared. "No, I swore never again!" Holding his head in his hands, gagging as if he could barely keep from vomiting, he strode into a room and strode over to a window, pushing it open and drawing in great heaving gulps of air.

"You must leave!" he ordered Regina, without turning around. His voice cracked on the command. He swayed, shoulders trembling, and his hands clenched around the draped with a force that threatened to pull them from their berth.

"Get away from me," he said, his voice tormented. "If you value your life, leave me. Now."

Paralyzed by grief and longing, Regina couldn't move from behind him. She wanted to touch him, to reassure him, to feel again the urgent throbbing of his swollen skin beneath her fingertips, and yet some sixth sense warned her that to do was to court the most violent and deadly of dangers. Even as she hesitated, behind her Anna ran into the room, her expression wild, and her hair spilling from its pins.

Panting, shoulders heaving, the housekeeper cast one swift glance from the count to Regina and back again. "Take her away," the count said, his words thick and slurred. "Lock her up. Don't leave her alone, not even for a second."

Anna didn't reply. In frantic, panic filled silence, she took Regina's arm and literally dragged her from the room. She pushed her out into the hallway and shut the door, but she didn't come out of the room herself. Regina heard the bolt slam into place and the heavy key turn into the lock. The murmur of Anna's voice drifted into the corridor, but Regina was way beyond making sense of what was said inside the count's dark room.

Finally Anna walked back out, "Come, you must rest in your bed."

Anna walked Regina to her bed, she was completely drained, she slid between the lavender scented sheets of the bed and closed her eyes. Her last thought was the words that she had heard the Count say.

 _Vampire._

She felt like she was in the middle of a dream, a fantasy. In her dream the Count, Robin, was leaning over her, taking her nightgown off of her body. He was kissing her lips, capturing them with his own, searing them with charged heat he could barely contain. His tongue was in her mouth, invading her, searching for hers, not gently but with a thrust of expectation, removing all final thoughts of indecency with hot, sweeping need. He placed a hand in her hair, holding her head to him, and with the other he grasped her breast. His cold hand making her gasp, the contact became urgent as he rubbed her nipple back and forth and in small circles as it rose to a peak against his palm and fingers.

She had never been so exposed to a man, and yet she no longer cared, couldn't think of her world beyond this bed that they were on. This man, this feeling of being vibrantly brought to life. All that remained of uncertainty evaporated with an indescribable impatience to experience the unknown pleasures he was promising with his mouth and hands.

She clutched at his shoulders with tight fingers, he pulled his mouth from hers, and she raised her lashes to look at his face. He stared down at her, lids heavy over glazed eyes, his hair mussed.

"Can you feel what is between us? There's no barrier left but physical. You already are my lover. You were born for me."

A spell bounding fever of aching passion radiated from deep within him to envelop her almost violently, a magnificent desire she knew he possessed for her alone. And it absorbed her.

With renewed immediacy and instinct she didn't clearly understand why, she raised her hands to his shirt and began to work swiftly through each button, top to bottom, staring starkly into his eyes filled with raging physical hunger.

He started helping her, from the bottom, until their hands met in the center of his chest. He seized her fingers, lifted them momentarily to his lips before releasing them, then pulled the shirt from his body. Eyes still locked with hers, he began furiously working through the buttons on his pants.

Regina closed her eyes from a trace of renewed embarrassment when she realized what he was doing, her mind beginning to race with the details of what was so soon to transpire in this room, on this bed. In Robin's embrace. Seconds later she heard the rustle of clothes, then felt him lie beside her, not quite touching, but she knew he now wore nothing at all.

His hand raked through her hair, his lips touching her temple in wispy movements, and her heart beat relentlessly in her chest from knowing she was about to give herself immorally to a man who wasn't her husband, a man she didn't really know.

 _A man?_

 _Or Vampire?_

"Look at me, Regina," he urged in a voice marked with passion.

She shivered from the intimacy between them and raised her lashes once more, refusing to glance down but feeling the curls on his bare chest as he leaned against her shoulder.

He looked into her eyes as he slowly lowered his head to her neck, she tilted her head back to give him better access to it. He kissed her briefly, before nuzzling her ear, taking the lobe in his mouth, sucking on it. She closed her eyes to the feel of his lips and tongue and hands creating their magic. He ran his palm over her breasts in growing demand and she was instantly ready for more, the need in her mounting with each bold caress.

She reached for him, her fingers in his hair, pulling him into her, now longing for a uniting of their bodies and souls. He moved his head to place tiny kisses on her neck, she felt his mouth open and he sucked hard on the skin there. As he did this, he very slowly drove his hands between her legs, over the only remaining barrier to the place of his desire.

He massaged her there, as a piercing pleasure shot through her. She gasped from passion, from the undercurrent of crisp, erotic tension as it erupted at the surface. She succumbed, her body begging for more as she pushed her hips into his hand.

"You're perfect for me," he whispered against her.

She melted into the movement. He was making it perfect for her, teaching her, loving her with his body. Then he lowered his head and took her breast into his mouth. She arched her back and nearly cried out as he began to lick and suck and kiss her nipple, teasing it with his lips, his tongue, grazing it with his teeth. Until finally he seemed to bit her breast. He placed his hand over the other and kneaded the bare flesh, rotating his fingertips across smooth skin, lightly squeezing the nipple to a hard point, and Regina thought she would die. She put her hands on his head, her fingers through his hair, lifting her body into it, panting and whispering as he licked and sucked and excited her so expertly.

He groaned, coming alive from the eagerness she expressed, raising his head just enough to lay a trail of fine kisses from her breast to her neck, sliding his tongue along the crevice of her throat to her chin. He leaned closer to her, the matted curls of his muscled chest teasing her nipples. He once again covered her mouth with his.

She almost came off the bed, as she felt him boldly place his hand on the softness between her legs. She gasped against his mouth, but he didn't release her lips. He continued with the kiss, positioning his free hand on her forehead, his thumb on her brow, holding her steady. Then without pause, he pushed his fingers down between her thighs.

She clutched his shoulders with rigid hands. Her throat ached, her body craved a release from the torment. He waited only seconds before he began to stroke her sensually, moving his fingers gingerly at first, then more and more intimately until she felt the slick heat mounting and glorious tension in the center of her belly.

She opened her eyes as she felt him remove his fingers suddenly, only to be replaced with his mouth. His mouth was on her! His tongue inflamed her. The fever grew within as his tongue sucked her clit into his mouth, pulling at it with his front teeth. He opened his mouth and let his tongue slide up and down between her slick folds.

She turned her head to the side, moaning his name as he continued this sweet torture. His hands moved up to her breasts and took her nipples in his forefingers and thumbs and twisted them, pulled on them as he continued to please her with his mouth, his tongue. She gasped and clawed at his arms with her nails, wanting more.

He responded with his tongue entering her sweet folds, causing her to scream through her lips. She rocked her hips into his mouth, whimpering. She whispered his name in a daze of wonder. He darted his tongue in and out of her, flicking it inside of her. And between his hands on her, his mouth on her, sent her over the edge. She cried out for him as she ignited in a blaze of ecstasy, in a glorious climax made perfect by him.

She heard him say something as her pleasure filled mind was in a pure state of bliss, "I've waited years for this moment with you, Regina."

She began to tremble from the sweetness of his words, the grave meaning behind them, as she opened her eyes and looked down to see the fierceness of his gaze, his head between her spread thighs still.

"But I must taste you," he said as she felt pain then, gripping her from the inside.

Robin smiled as he closed Regina's door behind him and headed to his bedchamber. His need fulfilled for this night. As he walked into his own room, moments later, he felt a presence in his room.

"Anna," Robin said.

"You are risking your life with her," Anna said, "all of our lives."

"She's worth it," Robin argued.

"That might be, but when they see bite marks on her neck-"

"I didn't leave bite marks on her neck," Robin denied.

"How is that possible? She obviously satisfied your thirst just now," Anna said.

"There are more than one place to taste," Robin said with a smirk.

Early the next morning, Regina woke up from what seemed like a drugged sleep. Her eyelids were heavy, her head feeling fuzzy. She looked around the room, as she thought of her erotic dream the night before. Of her and the Count. She started to move her hips on the bed, and instantly felt pain on one of her legs, on the inner part.

She pulled the nightgown up and looked down, her mouth opening at what she saw...

Two bite marks on the inside of her thigh, almost at her core.

* * *

 _ **HAPPY HALLOWEEN, STAY SAFE OUT THERE.**_

 ** _I have a twitter if you would like to follow, its atMyFicsAndMore. I post sneaks, what stories I'm working on, etc._**


	5. Chapter 5

_**(A/N-Special thanks to Bekki boo for beta reading this. And to those who read, review, follow and fav.)**_

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Regina gasped upon seeing those marks, she had thought the erotic dream she had last night was just that...a dream; a dream in which Lord Robin had come to her bedchambers and marked her, literally. Now she had to question the balance of reality versus the dream world as she got up from the bed and stood beside the bedpost.

"He said he was a vampire," Regina said to herself. She leaned against the post, too weary to move. Her body felt enervated, so completely drained that every thought seemed to require impossible quantities of energy. Her limbs numb, her mind a blank, and her senses deadened, she slid down into an exhausted huddle on the floor by her bed. She had no idea how long she was there, when Anna came into her room. Regina was aware of the housekeeper's presence, so she simply lay where she had collapsed.

With unexpected gentleness, Anna knelt beside her and slipped her arm around Regina's shoulders, "Can you stand up, milady?" she asked softly.

"No." The one word reply depleted every last ounce of Regina's resources.

"He took too much," Anna whispered, snapping her mouth shut as Regina looked at her suddenly. "Wait there. I will return in but a moment."

Regina felt not the slightest inclination to disobey. She waited with perfect docility until the housekeeper returned carrying a glass of something. "This will help you to feel stronger," Anna said. "Drink."

All her precautions and suspicions about the housekeeper's previous offerings of food and drink, Regina took the glass with barely a qualm. She noted the abstract interest that her hand shook as she carried it to her mouth. She sipped the cordial, which was some sort of sweet, fortified wine, and felt an almost imperceptible lightening of her lethargy. When she'd finished drinking, she put the glass on the floor and closed her eyes.

The housekeeper knelt beside her again. "Milady, you must try to walk," she said. "You will rest more comfortable in your bed."

Regina made a token effort to stand. That was enough for Anna. She grabbed her by the waist, and forced her to her feet. Taking most of Regina's weight onto her plump shoulders, she spoke quietly. "Come, you need the comfort of your bed and some more sleep."

Regina walked the few steps like a hundred year old woman. She made no protest when Anna started to undress her, but when the housekeeper tried to clothe her in the nightgown that had once belonged to the count's mother, she was filled with a burst of energizing terror.

"No! I won't wear that!" She struggled fretfully, flailing her arms and pushing the gown away, until Anna caught her hands and held them captive.

"Very well. No nightgown. You shall sleep in your shift if that is your wish."

Regina didn't care what she slept in as long as it wasn't that nightgown. Too sluggish to bother with a reply, she slid between the lavender scented sheets on the bed and closed her eyes. When she opened them later that day, it was almost after noon. The sun was streaming through a crack in the curtains, setting dust motes dusting. Of Anna there was no sign.

There was a knock on her door, and a voice called out, "Regina, it was her father, "We're about to have lunch are you ready to join us?"

"In just a few minutes," Regina called back as she then swung her legs to the floor and stood up, wrapping herself in the starched linen bedcover since she had no dressing gown. To her relief, she found that her legs felt steady enough, despite her wooziness. It was only her head that still felt thick and heavy, so that forming each thought required an effort akin to swimming through molasses. Hoping that fresh air would blow about the lingering cobwebs, she staggered over to the windows, drew back the draperies, and flung wide the casement.

The rains of the previous day had finally creased, although the skies remained sullen with the threat of another storm. Drawing in a gulp of reviving, rain scented air, Regina stepped out onto a small balcony, enclosed by an unusual stone and wood balustrade instead of a more typical wrought iron railing.

The room where she had slept overlooked a rear courtyard that was apparently close to the stables. She could hear the stomp of horses' hooves and the jingle of harnesses floating up to her on the breeze, along with the faint, pungent smells of hay, horse sweat, and manure.

Still trying to cast off the lingering tendrils of sleep, she leaned against the balustrade, watching the pale sun attempt to break through a stubborn covering of clouds. The rattle of wooden wheels on paving stones drew her attention to the scene below just in time to see one of the stable lads drive a small cart, something like an English pony trap, into the courtyard.

Turning back into the room, she started to get dressed, as she was, she noticed that the bite marks that were there earlier...seemed to disappear. She couldn't make sense of it, but knew that people were waiting on her. She quickly made her way down to the dining hall, noticing that the Count was absent from the meal. She conversed with her father afterwards; he was going to go over the books to see who had ownership of the villa.

Afterwards, Regina made her way over the property, walking through the beautiful courtyards and grounds. She was impressed with how the upkeep of the villa was, as she continued her walk, her thoughts turned to the Count. Where was he? Why wasn't he about the place, seeing to the running of it?

What had happened last night?

Was it a dream?

If it was a dream, that didn't explain the bites on her leg.

As the hours passed, she had dinner with her father and Anna, who had informed her that the Count had been pulled away from the villa for business. Regina had been about to question her further, when her father informed her he was taking to his bed.

Regina started to make her on way when she came upon a young lad carrying a tray, set with crystal carafe and two polished glasses. He stopped upon seeing her. He nodded at her, glancing around uncertainly as if unsure whether to continue upstairs or retreat to the kitchens.

"Good evening," Regina said.

The boy nodded, relieved to have Regina set the tone. "Good evening to you. How are you?"

"Well, thank you."

"His excellency is waiting for me to serve his brandy, milady."

"Then certainly I must not delay you." Regina said, smiling. "Please, go ahead. Lead the way."

The boy nodded and started the climb up the stairs, to the third floor, looking back nervously over his shoulder to see if she was following. She was most definitely following. As if she had every right to do so, Regina climbed the stairs behind the servant, trying to look like a guest who'd been invited to visit the count's quarters.

"It's dark on these back stairs, isn't it?" she said.

"Truth be told, I'm used to the dark," the serving lad said. "The master, he doesn't much care for bright lights. Hurts his eyes, so he says."

"A troublesome affliction, but he copes so admirably," Regina murmured, trying not to sound as if she knew exactly what they were talking about.

The servant wasn't convinced, or else he was intelligent enough to stick to the main point at hand. He looked at her doubtfully, "Does my master know that you are here?" he asked. "Coming to his room, I mean?"

"Why of course," Regina said, flashing a bright smile quickly. "He's expecting me." Her reply wasn't entirely a lie, she reassured herself. She had a suspicion that the count knew more about her movements than could be accounted for rationally. How else could she explain the tug of attraction that had drawn her to him since meeting him?

The serving lad hesitated for another second or two. Then he tapped softly on the panels of a door situated at the furthermost reaches of the third floor hallway.

It was opened at once by another boy that Regina didn't recognize. "Come in," he said. "Anna says you're..." His voice faded with horrified silence. "My God, Alex. What are you thinking? Why have you brought _her_ up here?"

Alex shuffled his feet and held out the tray with the brandy, almost as if it were a peace offering. "She says she is expected. Here. Take this."

"Expected?" the servant stared in amazed disbelief from Alex to Regina and back again. "That's not possible. Lady, please, return to your chamber at once."

A door set into the paneling of the room flew open and Anna called out to the servants. "Where is the brandy? He needs you in there right away. Both of you! Come! This will be your night to serve the count."

She stepped aside just long enough to shoo the pair of serving lads ahead of her. Those few seconds were all Regina needed to glimpse of the inner sanctum, and the sight that met her eyes was so horrific that she gasped and followed Reggie into the anteroom, entirely forgetting that she had neither the right nor reason to be there.

The sparsely, furnished inner room was dominated by a heavy, four poster bed, bolted to the floor. The Count, clad only in breeches and an open shirt, stood at the end of the bed, clinging to one of the posts, his head drooping, his face hidden by the thickness of the pillar.

Anna swung around at the sound of Regina's smothered exclamation. Her face crumpled into an expression of appalled surprise. "Madonna and all the saints, lady, are you determined to cause trouble? Get out of here before the count sees you."

"It...is...too...late," the count said, his voice low and threaded with pain. "I know...she had come...to me."

Belatedly, Regina realized that the count wasn't simply standing by the bedpost, clinging to it for support. He was lashed to the bed by rope and leather thongs, held immobile by knots that looked viciously tight. Dear God, he was a prisoner in his own home! What did that mean? Was Anna keeping him captive?

Regina swallowed over a burgeoning fear, and managed to find her voice. "My God, Anna, release him! Have you gone mad? Why have you tied him up like that?" Regina started to walk towards him.

"Get away from him, lady. Do not approach the bed." Anna didn't look in the least bit guilty, merely frantic with worry. "Do not question what you do not understand. I beg that you will return to your own room and speak to no one of what you have seen."

"But this is an outrage. Anna, I can't permit you-"

"Tell her she must leave!" The count's voice reached her, low and throbbing with pain. "Anna I can't hold out much longer. The bonds will break."

Regina saw that his hands were tugging at the cords, pulling frantically in an effort to release the knots. The muscles bunched and corded on his neck and forearms, and the leather thongs creaked as they stretched and loosened. With a thrill of shock, Regina realized that the count wasn't fighting to break free of his bonds. Instead, he was struggling to hold on to the bedpost, clinging to the wooden pillar with all his strength. Far from trying to tear himself loose, he _wanted_ to be held captive. She stared in horrified fascination, sickened and yet unable to look away.

"Get out," Anna said to Regina, no longer bothering to be polite. She pushed Regina toward the outer door, yelling to the serving lads as she did so. "You, Jacob, get over to your master. Here, Alex, give me one of those glasses."

She continued propelling Regina toward the door while she simultaneously fumbled in her apron pocked and pulled out a small packet of powder. When Alex held out his tray, she tipped half the powder into each wineglass. Alex seemed to know what was expected of him. Looking a little frightened, he splashed brandy into the glasses and swirled the mixture around until the powder dissolved.

"Is this for my master?" Alex asked, and his voice cracked on the question, squeaking up into the high register of the boy he still was.

"No," Anna said. "It's for you. Drink it. When you wake up, you will be on your way home and several gold pieces richer. No harm done."

Alex viewed the brandy glass with evident reluctance. Jacob walked over to his side with a slight swagger. "Here, give me a glass. I've already volunteered."

Regina and Anna had reached the outer door. Anna grabbed hold of Regina's arms and shoved her into the corridor. "Go," she ordered. "I don't have time for you now. Your presence here in the house is bad enough, without having you right on top of my poor master. You are making him sicker that I have ever known him."

Regina made no further protests. She fled back downstairs, her stomach churning with revulsion. God in heaven, what had she seen? She had always heard rumors how some men preferred others, in her wildest flights of fantasy had she thought she would come so close to it.

As she slid into her own bed that night, she knew she would have to have a conversation soon with the Count...about her dream...and her bite that she had once had.


	6. Chapter 6

_**(A/N-Special thanks to Bekki boo for beta reading this. And to those who read, review, follow, fav.)**_

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The torment of his cresting had never before been so long or so terrible, and Robin knew that it was because of the female, Regina Mills, that intensified his pain to such brutal levels. For some reason, perhaps the mere coincidence of her arrival right at the moment when his body had entered the climax of its cycle, he had been drawn to her with a fascination greater than any he had ever experienced before for a human female. True, he had limited his interactions with females in recent years, but in his youth, before Marian, there had been many flirtations, many efforts to experience the emotion that had always escaped him, called love.

From the second that he had touched her mind, he had been overwhelmed by the force and power of their mental connection. And the link between them, entered into so casually, had proven almost impossible to break. The erotic images they created together took on an addictive life of their own. Given the limited self-control he had available during the turmoil of his cresting, Robin had been powerless to stop the seductive pleasure of their mutual fantasies. Regina's mind hummed with activity. Her emotions were soft, swirling clouds that wrapped themselves around his soul, drawing him in, offering him a comfort and a delight he'd scarcely known how to resist.

Be resist he would have to. Because, in the end, Regina would reject him, just as every human female rejected mated with a Vampire. And he would be forced by the imperatives of his nature to overcome her rejection. These last few days he had wondered if he would survive the torment of his unfulfilled need, tantalized as he was by her nearness.

Anna watched him, her eyes dark with sympathy. She ran her older fingers over his swollen cheeks, and he clenched his jaw, wincing at the instant throbbing of the tender sacs that protected his fangs. "Only a few more hours and then it will be over," her words were low, knowing how all his senses were painfully magnified during the time of his cresting.

"I…hope..so…" He refused to calculate how many more hours remained before his sacs burst. The pain of waiting would be unendurable if he started counting down the time. Last night he'd fallen into that trap, and the silent screams of his despair had brought Regina straight to his side, only to witness the degradation of his suffering. By giving in to weakness, he had subjected himself to shame.

Robin swallowed, moistening his sacs, and for a split second the pain throbbing in his fangs abated. "Where….is…she?" he asked Anna.

"Gone out with one of the stable boys for a trip to the nearest town," Anna didn't need to ask _who_ she was. She could also tell that he was not liking the idea of Regina with another male.

"Let the boy dance attendance on your English virgin and perhaps she'll forget about you and start paying attention to him instead." Anna said.

"My English virgin?" Robin asked ruefully. "Dear god, Anna how I wish that she was!"

For over a thousand years, the Vampire elders had tried to mimic the effects of female blood, sucked into the Vampire's system during the shattering culmination to a mating. All their attempts had so far failed, and Robin realized that each year, each cresting his own makeshift remedy became less successful. Ten years ago, a cup of blood from one young serving lad had been enough to precipitate a rupture of his mating sacs, sending the life-nourishing fluid streaming into his system. Two years ago, his need had increased and it had taken two cups. This time, he had already drawn blood from three serving lads, and it hadn't been enough. Another young boy would have to be mesmerized while Robin drew blood from the veins in his wrist and sipped slowly, without pleasure, praying for release from the brutal pain that preceded culmination.

He didn't dare contemplate what would happen when the time came that nothing would appease his starving body other than the real blood of a female virgin, drawn warm and pulsing into his mouth. Robin forced his eyes open, trying to shatter the forbidden images crowding into his mind. But even with his eyes open, he saw Regina, her throat bared to his touch, and her hands stroking his cheeks in a delicate, erotic caress. He saw her, them naked on the bed, her on her back, him between her open legs as he leaned his body forward and thrust into her as he took both her virginity and took her blood.

The longing that seized him was tinged with unbearable sadness because such tempting images he could never have any foundation of reality. Don't think of her, he warned himself. Contemplate the great philosophical truths of the universe.

But he saw in his mind Regina with a huge belly where his son would be. He shook his head as to clear it as he also thought of how Robin's own mother had survived the pregnancy, but died in giving birth to Robin. His father's pregnant mistress had died six months into the pregnancy, taking her frail, partially formed Vampire son with her into death. Now the total number of Vampire had once again decreased, this time from four hundred and sixty-three to a mere four hundred and fifty. There were no successful births to report from the previous decade.

Robin's thoughts faded into incoherence as the culmination to his cresting came even closer. As night neared, Anna was called downstairs by one of the serving lads, as Robin lay there waiting for his cresting to end, he heard his bedroom door open and close. As he opened his eyes to speak to Anna, he saw that it wasn't Anna that stood there, but Regina instead.

"You shouldn't…be here," Robin said as he stood up with a huge amount of his strength that he had left.

"I couldn't stay away," Regina said as she neared him.

Desire overcame the tattered remnants of his self-control and he seized her arms. If he hadn't been blinded by the tempest of his cresting, he would have remembered that touching Regina was the very last thing he should be doing. But he was well past the point of rational planning, had been past it from the second she had entered into his bedroom.

His mind flooded with the tumbling, chaotic rush of Regina's feelings. His pores soaked up the turmoil of her emotions, the hurt, the confusion, the feelings she was beginning to have for him, the worry she had for him, and the throbbing pulse of her desire for him. He knew that he should break the physical contact and rebuild his safety barriers before disaster overtook him. He knew that the last thing on earth he should do was draw her closer to him. He stared deep into her eyes, feeling the pulse of her desire grow stronger.

"Robin?" she whispered.

"Regina." Her named slipped off his tongue. He had been longing for days to say it, and the sound was achingly sweet. Cursing himself as every sort of fool, Robin bent his head slowly toward the enticing softness of her parted lips. His mouth closed over hers. He felt the shimmer of her response, and then the soft yielding of her body within his arms. When he rested his hands in the small of her back and pulled her against the throbbing hardness of his erection, _her_ pleasure inundated his mind.

Robin had never realized that kissing was such a delightful experience. How strange that the press of one's mouth against another person's mouth could send shivers shooting through your entire body. Belatedly, he realized that the thought hadn't been his, but Regina's. God in heaven, he was losing the power to distinguish between his feelings and hers, between his experienced lust and her naïve passion. The close interweaving of their thoughts set off a faint, distant alarm. This couldn't be safe for either of them. This wasn't the sort of casual sex in which he indulged from time to time in the wake of his cresting. This was something altogether more powerful, more dangerous.

In a minute, he assured himself, in a second or two, he would end their kiss.

"Don't stop," Regina murmured. "I don't want you to stop kissing me." She reached up, clasping her hands behind his head, pulling him closer.

With barely a token strength, Robin gave up his futile attempts to resist. He sank into the warmth of her embrace, relishing the hot course of her desire racing through his veins. Her need for him was intense, but entirely untutored. She wanted consummation, but she had no idea what that consummation involved.

Her naivety provoked an odd gentleness within him, and he carried her to his bed, telling himself that he had allowed himself to blow this encounter entirely out of proportion. Sex with a human female was just sex, nothing more. The fever of his spring cresting would break any second. Regina would be safe. He could easily control himself.

Smiling inwardly at the pleasure ahead of them, Robin laid her against the pillows. She gasped in disbelief as his mind sent her images of what he planned to do over the next several minutes. He laughed at her wide-eyed astonishment, his anger banished by tenderness. In the passionate intimacy of their mind link, he knew it would be ludicrous to imagine that she would ever betray him.

He quickly removed her dress and ran his hands over her breasts, cupping their fullness, and flicking his tongue over the thrusting points of her nipples. For a split second, her passion was dampened by fear at the strangeness of the sensations she was experiencing, but her arousal had progressed so far and so fast that the fear soon became no more than an excited note of expectation. Her jumble of emotions coalesced into an ardent longing for what humans considered the ultimate consummation.

She trusted him, Robin realized with a quiver of shock. Despite everything that had passed between them, she trusted him not to hurt her. In the same instant that he sensed her trust, he discovered that his fangs were pressing hard against the flesh of his upper jaw, waiting to break through the tiny openings in front of his teeth. Mating fluid was already seeping from the sacs that were normally no more than tiny bulges guarding his fangs.

The thin, faintly sweet fluid trickled into his throat, intensifying his desire with each passing moment. It was against every known rule of Vampire physiology for mating sacs to be fully regenerated in less than two months from the culmination of a cresting and Robin's own experience suggested that his sacs and fangs took almost a full four months to grow back. Incredible as it might seem, Regina's presence must have triggered a rapid acceleration in the natural mating cycle of his body.

Regretfully, Robin realized that he was not going to be able to enjoy a session of what human beings considered normal sexual intercourse with Regina. The pressure of his fangs and the burgeoning of his mating sacs warned him in no uncertain terms that the path he was taking was one of utter, unredeemed folly. The realization that he must draw back came a split second too late, the mating fluid exuding from his sacs changed the nature of his desire. He no longer felt a warm, lighthearted anticipation of initiating Regina into the pleasures of human sexual intercourse. Instead, his Vampire instincts had taken over.

He no longer wanted to toy with her breasts, or persuade her to open her thighs to his teasing fingers. He craved her very essence. He craved her blood. The image of her slender throat impressed itself on his inner eye, making him shudder with longing. Through the haze of his passion, he felt a change in Regina's response, as her desire became tinged with naïve curiosity and the driving urgency of his own need. For some strange reason, she showed no sign of being repulsed by the images she gleaned from his mind. Shyly, she reached up, pushing her hair out of the way, spreading it over the pillow.

Dear God, she had sensed his desire and was deliberately baring her throat to him.

Robin fell forward, burying his face in the voluptuous smoothness of Regina's neck. With his tongue, he marked out the path of her jugular vein. His eyes were closed, but in his mind's eye he saw the pulse of her blood, flowing blue and thick through the vein, lapping onto his tongue. The glorious picture was only imagination, not reality, but his sacs swelled almost to bursting point, a culmination which in recent years had taken him five agonizing days to achieve and tonight had happened within minutes.

His fangs distended at an incredible rate, growing within his sacs in tandem with his erection. Any second now, his fangs would be sharp enough and long enough to burst through their protective covering and rip into Regina's throat, tearing aside the delicate layer of flesh and sinking into her jugular vein at precisely the same moment that the mating fluid gushed forth at full power. A few seconds later, he would thrust into her body and flood her with his seed. Their son would be born eleven months from now, and Robin would love him with all the pent up accumulation of a century of yearning.

 _Robin, you're frightening me._

For a fraction of a second, the pulsing throb of scarlet ecstasy ceased and his mind cleared. He stared down at the woman lying beneath him and saw not a nameless source of blood, or ever a receptacle to be filled with his seed, but Regina, a woman unlike any other human being he'd ever known.

She gazed up at him, her huge brown eyes misty, her skin flushed with desire. Her heart was pounding so fast that it almost beat in unison with his Vampire rhythm. Because he was linked to her so closely, he knew the fast beat was caused only partly by fear. Despite everything, she still desired him.

What was he going to do? Depraved of the blood they needed, the throbbing of his fangs changed to an excruciating ache. Robin's mind clouded. Regina's reaction to him had always been different from other females, he thought numbly, and since she seemed willing to accept him, why should he resist? She wasn't frightened by his lust. Well, she might be a little frightened, but she wasn't truly terrified. Perhaps he had finally found the woman who was capable of surviving a mating and giving him the Vampire heir he longed for. The temptation was so great right now.

The urge to mate with her was so strong that he actually nuzzled against her neck, seeking the perfect place to sink his fangs into. At the very last moment, an infinite fraction of a second before he cut into her flesh, he realized exactly what he was doing. With an agonized cry, he pulled himself away from her, tossing the sheet over her throat, hiding temptation. He staggered from the bed and dragged himself over to the window, pressing his cheeks against the panes of glass and praying for the throbbing, burning heat of his sacs to cool. His body was still in a state of full arousal, and images of Regina flooded his mind. He saw her throat, bared for his possession, and her thighs parted to receive him. Another cry of agony tore from his parched, laboring lungs.

With a shudder of despair, he realized that he had neither the physical strength nor the mental stamina to erect the mental walls that would keep his lust private and Regina safe. He leaned against the windows, shivering as the fever of his cresting mounted. Perhaps it was just as well that he could not screen his thoughts, he reflected. Once Regina saw the bloody reality of his desire, she would run screaming from the room, and from his life. Perhaps, for both their sakes, he needed to make sure that she saw exactly what he wanted to do to her.

Dragging himself into a more or less upright position, Robin slowly lifted his head. His gaze met Regina's. With despairing bravado, he flung the barriers to his mind wide open, and invited her to walk in. Despite everything, he experienced the now-familiar jolt of pleasure as their thoughts touched and then interlocked. The ache of his fangs changed once again to a throb of excited anticipation. He felt Regina's response, and conquered the danger by projecting an image guaranteed to repel her from him.

Robin showed her exactly what he wanted to do to her, an image of her lying naked on his bed, trapped beneath his body, her arms lashed high over her head, and her throat exposed to his ravenous need. He demonstrated, explicitly and completely, how he would use the unique skills of his Vampire heritage to caress her into a state of mindless, quivering arousal. As soon as he was satisfied that she was too full of human sexual desire to resist him, he would put his hand under her chin and tip her head back against the pillows, massaging her jugular vein with delicate, tender strokes.

At the mere thought of stroking Regina's throat, a rush of mating fluid dripped down his fangs. He incorporated that reality into the fantasy he was projecting to her. He showed her an image of the fluid dropping onto her neck, causing the veins beneath the surface to swell, bulging until the delicate white skin of her throat was stretched taut. Robin shivered with ecstasy. Slowly savoring each blissful second, he showed her the image of his fangs sinking deep into her throat. He twisted his head in an instinctive mating toss, and the sharp cutting edge on the side of his fangs ripped her jugular vein wide open. In his fantasy, Regina's blood gushed into his mouth, soothing the burning pain at the root of his fangs. He sacs burst. The final surge of his mating fluid poured out, saturating the wounds he had inflicted upon her neck. The fluid tricked deep into her jugular vein, mingling his essence with her life's blood. Their mating complete, she smiled up at him, as sated and replete as he was himself.

The perfect erotic fantasy, Robin thought bitterly. I mate with Regina, but she doesn't die. With ruthless determination, he cut off the happy ending and showed her the brutal truth of what would really happen if he tried to assuage his needs on her body. From the deep, dark place where he kept such memories hidden, he summoned up imaged of the women he had murdered. To make sure that she could not fail to understand his message, he showed her poor little Marian's limp and lifeless body. He sent one last terrible picture of his attempt to revive her after their mating. Then he sank down into a chair and waited for her to leave him.

He should have known that Regina would never do what he expected. She crossed the room and stood in front of him, her shoulders squared and her head held high, although even in his feverish state he had no trouble at all in detecting her inward tremble.

"Robin," she murmured. "For God's sake, speak to me. What did all that mean? What manner of a man are you?"

He found that he had lost the strength, or even the desire to lie. He turned to look at her, the cool neutrality of his expression masking the ravaged state of his heart. He spoke the words that he had never thought a human would hear.

"I'm not a man, Regina. I am a Vampire."


	7. Chapter 7

_**(A/N-Special thanks to Bekki boo for beta reading this. Also to those who read, review, follow, fav.)**_

* * *

Regina shivered, though she wasn't the least bit cold. Robin seemed to be in such pain that she longed to touch him, and yet dared not. For the first time since meeting him, she was afraid of him.

"What do you mean, you're a vampire?" she asked, her voice breaking on the unfamiliar word.

"I mean, I drink blood to survive," Robin answered.

"How long have you been a vampire?" Regina asked.

"A very long time," Robin answered.

"How were you changed into a vampire?" Regina asked.

"By a bite from another vampire, my maker. Rumple." Robin answered.

"A man bit you?" Regina asked.

"Not a man, a monster," Robin answered.

"How…how long do you vampires live?" Regina asked.

"Some have lived over a thousand years," Robin answered.

"Do you…do you mate with humans?" Regina asked.

"Yes, but only with female humans as there are no known female Vampires now." Robin said. "The children of our kind are all males."

"I don't understand. There must be some reason that no girls have been born. It can't be a coincidence." Regina said.

He moved so that he now stood up over her, his posture simultaneously pain-racked and menacing. "Regina, I've just told you I'm a vampire. You have seen what I am capable of doing to a human female. Do you still not realize that you are in mortal danger when you are near me? Do you still not realize what manner of being I am?"

"You're a vampire." Regina answered.

Robin was about to say something when Robin groaned and went to the bed. "Leave me now, Regina. While I can still let you."

Regina crossed the room and was kneeling beside the bed before she was consciously aware of making a decision to stay and help him. He was laying with his face buried in the pillow so that she couldn't see his face. She reached out to stroke the sweat-dampened tumble of his hair, but stopped herself just in time. She couldn't afford to risk any more of those confusing, compelling visions that swamped her every time she was around him.

"Robin." She said his name softly, wanting to let him know that she was still there. "Please tell me how I can help you."

He refused to look at her. "You…must…leave."

"I will..soon. But it cannot be necessary for you to endure this repeated torment. There must be some doctor, some medicine, that can help you. Let me send for help."

"There is no help," he said, his words muffled by the pillow. "There is nothing. Leave me."

She had never heard such total and complete despair in anyone's voice. She had never felt such brutal loneliness and isolation. Regina realized that she didn't care what the consequences might be. She had to do something for Robin, not only for his sake, but for her own. She was torn apart by the stress of seeing him bear such agony alone.

Hesitantly, all too aware of the danger she risked, Regina reached out and touched Robin lightly on the shoulder. Nothing happened. No erotic vision claimed her. No emotion swamped her. Emboldened, she ran her fingers through his hair. The tips of her fingers grazed the nape of his neck, and she felt the heat of the fever burning beneath his skin. Despite their continued physical contact, her mind felt nothing save swirling, pain-filled blackness.

The realization that he was unconscious was followed swiftly by the dreadful premonition that she was witnessing his death. Why else did she sense nothing but emptiness? Her entire being rebelled at the thought of sitting passively and watching him die. She threw herself across his body. "Robin, wake up!"

He didn't stir. He was drenched in sweat, boiling up with fever. She conquered the panic that threatened to paralyze her, and dragged him over onto his back, shivering when she saw the sickly gray hue of his complexion, and the bruised, sunken sockets of his eyes. His cheeks were swollen and strangely misshapen, as if he had two huge marbles inside his mouth and then pushed up as far as they would go.

She had seen those swellings before, although never in such an advanced state of growth. Robin frequently rubbed his cheeks right in that spot, as if seeking to ease some nagging ache. Regina pressed her hands lightly against his cheeks, then massaged in a gentle circular motion, hoping to relieve his pain at the same time as she tried to assess that nature of the growth.

Robin moaned. His hand sought hers, guiding her fingers in their massage, encouraging her to increase the pressure. Astonishingly, the massage alone seemed to bring him some relief, although Regina could see that the size of the swelling was actually increasing. Despite this, the dreadful grayness of his complexion faded, and his color improved to the creamy pallor that was normal for him.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes, and she saw stark terror in their blue depths. "Leave me," he ground out. "I implore you to leave me, Regina."

"I can't. Not when you are-"

She had no time to say anything more. Robin ground her hand, and carried it to his mouth. With a cry of anguished yearning, he pressed one fevered kiss in her palm before moving his mouth down to her wrist. She felt a quick stab of pain, and she cried out, more from shock than from anything else.

Robin's head lifted for a fraction of a second. She stared in a horrified, appalled fascination at the two small fangs that protruded over his lower lip. They were already stained with blood. Her blood. His eyes met hers, weary with regret.

"I'm sorry, Regina," he whispered. "Dear God, I beg you to forgive me."

"You do not need-Robin! What are you doing?"

He didn't reply. Silently, he dragged her down onto the bed, so that she was lying alongside him. He seized her arm, holding it immobile against the pillows, and nuzzling at the pulse beating in her wrist. Her pulse rate increased exponentially. She felt the tingle of a warm liquid against her skin, almost like alcohol on a cut, followed by the oddest sensation of swelling, as if her veins were puffing up beneath the skin.

"Robin." She whispered his name, instinctively aware that if she could force him to look at her, she would be able to prevent whatever terrible thing was about to happen. Robin refused to look up, but her mind filled with a sudden overwhelming sense of shame and humiliation.

 _Robin's feelings_ , she realized. Robin knew he would die without the infusion of her blood, and yet to take it from her was literally making his flesh creep with revulsion. Regina was swept by compassion.

 _Robin, there's no need for you to feel this way. I give you my blood willingly._

 _I will not kill you,_ he swore to her. _If I take the blood from your wrist, my love, you will survive my assault, and there will be no risk of impregnating you with my son._

His son. Robin assumed that he would have a son, not a daughter. Even when he was almost out of his mind with pain, he persisted in his claim that there were no female Vampires, only human females who were victims of Vampire lust.

She had no time for more thoughts. Scarlet blood gushed from her wrist. Robin swallowed it in ravenous gulps. She felt a split second of infinite joy. Then silver light exploded inside her mind, obliterating all awareness. She fainted.

When she woke up, morning sun was streaming into the room, and Robin was gone. Without him beside her, she felt a loss of part of her own soul. She had a terrible fear that he would never return. Weakness overcame her and she fell back to sleep, her cheeks wet with tears.

Rain beat a staccato tattoo against the windowpane. The curtains were drawn, but not completely closed, letting in a narrow beam of light that seemed oddly brilliant. Her wrists were bandaged, but there was no pain, only a consuming sensation of lethargy, combined with a heightened sensual awareness that was disorienting in its intensity. Beneath the pit-pat of the rain, she heard the steady rhythm of someone breathing, a sound as loud as the breaking of waves on a beach. Simultaneously, she registered a smell of mingled nutmeg, soup, and starched linen. Anna, she thought. Anna was in the room.

Slowly, listlessly, she turned her head in the direction of the sounds and smells.

The housekeeper was sitting beside the fire, staring into the empty grate. Her wrinkled face was drawn into lines of ineffable sadness. Regina wanted to ask what was wrong, but the effort was too great and she let her eyes drift closed again.

The bed felt lonely without the weight of Robin's body lying beside her. She wondered where he was and how she could persuade him to come back to her. She reached out with her mind, searching for him. Nothing came back to her save hollow echoes of emptiness. She hadn't realized it was possible to feel so mentally bereft.

With extraordinary effort, she dragged herself upright against the pillows. "Anna," she croaked. "Where is the count? What happened to him?"

The housekeeper came swiftly to her side, carrying a glass of cordial. "Why are you sitting up, Lady Regina? You must take care not to overexert yourself. Here, drink this."

Regina took the cordial without protest. She knew exactly what it was made of because she could smell each individual ingredient, brown sugar, rose hips, and chamomile, boiled together and stirred into a small dose of cognac. The drink revived her, easing the dryness of her throat.

"Anna, please you must tell me. Where is the count?" She waited, stomach twisting into knots, while the housekeeper considered her reply.

"He has been called away." Anna said at last.

"Called away? Where is he?" She clutched the housekeeper's arm. "Tell me the truth, is he dead?"

Anna shook her head. "No," she said slowly. "No, he is not dead. In fact, physically speaking, I would say that my master is stronger than he has been in a decade. Thanks to your blood, he has finally received the nourishment he so desperately needed." There was a definite hint of challenge in Anna's expression, as if she recognized that she broached a taboo topic.

Regina controlled a wave of nausea. "It's true, then? The count must drink human blood in order to live?"

"Only at certain times." Anna said. "For years he has tried to make do with the blood of young boys, but there is no substitute of a female virgin where my master is concerned."

"The blood of men and women is the same-"

"No, Lady Regina, it can't be, and the blood of virgins seem more potent than any other. Vampires have discovered that they can only produce offspring if their female partners are virgins."

"How do you know so much about him, Anna? Why has he chosen to trust you with secrets that he tells no one else?"

"I had a sister once, many years ago," she said. "Marian was the baby of our family, and I was already a widow with two young sons when Marian was taken into service with the lord of the region. The name of her master was the Count of de Hood."

Regina found that she was holding her breath. "Robin?" she asked.

"Yes, Lady Regina. The count had chosen my sister to be the mother of his son, but instead she died." Anna's eyes misted. "She was only seventeen years old."

"And yet you have chosen to serve the count for years-"

"For twenty-three years, Lady Regina," Anna shrugged. "When I first saw the count, he had come to the home of my father, escorting the coffin that held Marian's body. He told us that she had been struck down by a fever and that he wanted to help us by taking another member of the family into his service. When he heard that I was a widow with two young sons, he chose me. I was close to starvation at the time, and it seemed an excellent bargain, even though I had heard rumors that many young women died mysterious fevers when in the service of the count. I calculated that I might die, but my sons would have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies."

"What happened to your sons?" Regina asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"My eldest is in Piacenza and my youngest is in Milano, both doing quite well now. The count has been very generous to us all." Anna answered.

"But he killed your sister." Regina said.

"Yes, Lady Regina, that is true. But for twenty-three years now I have watched him struggle with the forces of his own nature. I know that he endures the torment of the damned in order to ensure that he will never again take the life of another woman." Anna's voice thickened with compassion. "I have watched his struggles, Lady Regina, and I know that he is a good man. He killed my sister, but not with evil intent. I have decided that it is for God to judge the degree of his sin, not me, or any other busybody."

Involuntarily, Regina glanced down at her wrists, then looked back up to the housekeeper. "Why does he take the blood he needs from young boys, instead of from women? If he is afraid of killing the women whose blood he takes, why isn't he afraid that he will also kill the serving lads?"

"He has no desire to mate with boys," Anna said. "So, there is no temptation in drawing their blood."

Regina shivered. "Couldn't he find a woman who doesn't tempt him?"

"It seems not, Lady Regina. When his blood lust is aroused, it is my master's nature to crave total possession of any young female virgin who comes near him. After Marian died, the count acknowledged the limits of his self-control. Since the night that my sister died, he had never permitted himself to be in the company of a female virgin at the time of his need. Never, that is, until you came to the villa."

"You sound angry, Anna, but I had no way of knowing that my presence in the villa would cause him to suffer."

"That is true, but the damage has now been done. He had lost his heart, Lady Regina, and for my master there is no way on earth that he can recover it."

After several silent seconds, Regina managed to produce a tired smile. "I have seemed to lost my heart to him as well, and I barely know him, Anna."

The housekeeper stared ahead, her eyes stony, but when she replied her voice was husky. "Then you have my deepest sympathy, Lady Regina. I pray to the Madonna that she may find some way to solve your problem, and that of my master."

"When will the count return?" Regina asked. "I would like to see him."

"That would probably not be wise, Lady Regina. Your hearts may ache at the separation, but you will be safer if you remain apart." Anna picked up the empty cordial glass and walked quietly back to her chair by the fire. As far as she was concerned, the conversation was at an end.

Regina's father visited her and after being reassured that she was fine, he informed her that he was heading back home as he had received a message that he was needed there. Days passed and Regina became like her old self. The bite marks were now healed on her wrist, but Robin was constantly on her mind.

What was new was the constable that was now around the villa, having heard of a murder not too far from the villa. The constable had introduced himself to Regina and there was something about Keith Notting that made her feel uneasy. It was probably the way he seemed to rake over her form many times, or the way he had held her hand a little too long after introducing himself to her. It had made her skin feel sickly when he had touched her.

One afternoon, she felt the silent, unmistakable brush of Robin touching her mind. He was coming home! She smiled, unable to contain her happiness as she ran to the window and looked down into the courtyard. As she watched, Robin rode into the yard. He was riding a chestnut gelding that seemed exhausted. Robin sprang from the saddle and patted the horse in praise for its efforts. Then he tossed the reins to a waiting stable lad, issued a few curt instructions, and ran towards the house with a speed and energy that belied the hours he had obviously spent in the saddle.

She ran out into the hallway, her mind screaming at her that Robin was home finally! The front door opened and Robin strode inside. He glanced up and came to her immediately, taking the stairs two at a time. His face and hair were gray with road dust, his high cheekbones almost coal black. His long riding cape and boots were heavily caked with mud, and his elegant linen shirt was ripped at the collar. In Regina's opinion, he looked utterly wonderful. She smiled at him, and she felt him smile back at her, though his face remained expressionless. He took the last three stairs in a single bound, coming to a halt less than a foot away from her.

He didn't speak, simply reached out and took both her hands, flicking back the cambric ruffles at the edge of her sleeves and exposing her inner wrists. His eyes darkening with regret, he ran his thumb lightly across the almost invisible wounds where his fangs had punctured her flesh.

 _I hurt you_ , he said, and Regina knew that neither of them any longer had any willpower to pull back from the forbidden pleasure of allowing their minds to join _. You carry the scars of my blood lust, and yet you welcome me home with smiles. You lack even the most basic sense of self-preservation, Regina._

Her name sang with the warm, lyrical softness of his feelings for her. She closed her fingers around his hands and answered him. _The scars of your touch, are already faded, but the pain of your absence would always linger._

He sighed, and his guilt momentarily shadowed her joy _. I swore that I would stay away until Anna sent word that you had returned home. But I am so weak-willed where you are concerned that I almost rejoiced to hear that you are still home._

She rested her hand against his cheek, and his guilt vanished, drowned in the drenching, surging crest of his pleasure. _I'm glad that you broke your sworn word._ She was about to communicate more, when the door was pushed opened once again. They looked down to see the stable boy, Daniel standing there.

"Lady Regina, you must hurry. Raven is about to have her foal." Daniel said as Regina started down the stairs to help the stable boy with the horse.

She knew Robin was following them, she felt him, more than saw him following them. After an hour, they realized Raven's foal was in the wrong position and Robin stepped in to help out, turning the foal into the correct birthing position. They watched as Raven birthed her foal, a beautifully filly that was named Midnight after her color.

Regina followed Robin out of the stables back into the house, where they ended up in his study. "Have you assisted many births?"

"A few times," he said. "Rest assured, Regina, I shall not fail you."

"The births you attended, were they of Vampire babies?" Regina asked.

She felt the waves of his sadness, which he quickly extinguished. "No, I have never seen the birth of a Vampire baby. Such births are rare."

"As are female babies of your kind." Regina said.

"In hundreds of years, so far there has been no female of our own race. Our scientists has concluded that the violence inherent in the act of mating with a human determine that the offspring of the union will always be male."

"Then your solution is simple." Regina stated.

"Indeed," he said, not masking his sarcasm. "So simple that the greatest Vampire minds in hundreds of years have not found it."

"It seems to me that if you insure that the mating between a Vampire and a human female is not violent then the child resulting from such a union will be a girl."

She felt the astonishment with which Robin listened to her. Then he gave a short bitter bark of laughter. "A beguiling fantasy, Regina. You forget that deadly fear on the part of the human female is not only inevitable, but unavoidable. To complete the act of mating, a Vampire must suck blood from the jugular vein of his victim."

"If you didn't use the word victim, perhaps you would remember that it isn't preordained that the woman will die after mating with you."

"Very true," he said ironically. "She has survived odd of about one in ten thousand. How foolish of her to be fearful when facing such odds."

"But she doesn't know the odds," Regina said. „You are infecting her with your own fears."

"Justifiable fears," Robin said.

"In your own world, Vampire women must have survived the union with their husbands, even though they gave him their blood. Otherwise there would be no Vampire race. You just have to have hope."

Robin captured her face between his hands and stared down at her, his gaze somber. Then, with studied slowness, he bent and covered her small mouth with his. He kissed her until the room spun around her head and the floor tilted beneath her feet.

When he released her, his eyes were full of sadness and regret as he said to her. "If you leave my home alive," he said," that is all the hope I can wish for.


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N-Special thanks to Bekki boo for beta reading this. And to those who read, review, and follow, fav. Thank you!**_

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"I know the risk, Robin. I'm prepared to take them." Regina said.

"You don't know what you say." Robin said.

"I do, Robin! I want to risk it all to be with you. Why won't you let me?" Regina asked.

"Because, if we're wrong…you die, Regina." Robin answered.

"We all die, Robin." Regina said, then realizing he wouldn't, amended. "Some of us. But if we're right, look at all the good we can share together. Don't you want that? Don't you want me?"

"Of course, I want you! I want you more than anything else I have ever wanted." Robin admitted as he bent his head in a slow, steady march towards her lips. His mouth fell on hers, his tongue sliding between Regina's parted lips. He tasted so good, she found herself leaning into him, enjoying the closeness and connection he was giving her. She pushed back, wanting more, deepening the kiss. But he remained soft and lazy as Regina became urgent. It was like someone flipped a switch and her body was alive with excitement.

Regretfully, Robin broke off their embrace. "I have always wondered why kissing was such an entertaining pastime," he said. "I am finally beginning to understand why."

"Mmm,' she said, trying to gather her scattered wits. "Do all Vampires kiss as well as you, Robin? Or are you especially talented?"

She felt his smile. "I would like to claim that I am especially talented. Honesty compels me to admit that I have no special skill, except for pleasing you."

She smiled back at him, overcome by the happiness of being alive, of falling in love. "I'm very glad that we met."

"As am I." Robin said.

Regina knew she still had to convince Robin that they could safely spend the rest of their lives together. Just now, they had been able to kiss without any disastrous consequences. Robin had seemed confident and fully in control of himself. Surely, they would gradually be able to learn how to escalate their lovemaking without creating danger for either of them?

For no reason at all, or perhaps for every reason in the world, she flung her head back and hummed the triumphant melody that began the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. She could only remember the first dozen bars, so when she reached the end of them, she started all over again, louder than before. She imagined the music spiraling up into the sky, traveling through space.

"You sing quite splendidly." Robin commented as he listened to her.

Regina stopped immediately. "Thank you. I just felt like I was going to burst if I didn't, I feel that happy right now."

Robin smiled softly at her, then stopped suddenly. He turned and walked upstairs to his room, Regina following him. She walked in to find him standing in front of the windows, his mood changed obviously.

"What's wrong, Robin?" Regina asked.

"I can't." Robin whispered.

"Can't what?" Regina asked.

"I can't make you happy. I can't keep you safe." Robin said.

"How odd then, that I should find you the person whom I say does make me happy and one that I trust easily." Regina admitted.

"Yet, you know what I am?" Robin asked.

"Yes, a Vampire." Regina said.

"Someone who takes the life of innocents." Robin said.

"That may have been who you were once upon a time. But, when I look at you now, I see only a man of great honor." Regina said.

He turned to her then, the longing in his eyes overshadowed by the tortured knowledge of where he feared that longing would lead them.

 _I want you, Regina._ His words filled her mind, and her body flooded with his desire.

 _I want you, too,_ she said.

His expression didn't change, but she felt the sad sweetness of his smile as he looked at her. He came to her, cradled her cheek in his hand. When she turned and pressed a kiss into his palm, he traced the curve of her lips with fingers that weren't quite steady.

 _You are the woman I have dreamed all my life of finding_ , he said. _You are the gentle spring breeze that refreshes my soul. You are a fire that roars in my blood and_ _consumes_ _my heart._

Robin, I've fallen in love with you. She could have found the courage to speak the words out loud. In the silent intimacy of their souls it was easier to acknowledge the truth. She felt his love envelop her, surround her, consume her. But he wouldn't declare it, and she knew that he fought to prevent the words taking shape in her mind.

 _You must leave me_ , he said. _My power to resist is low. If you do not leave, I will make you mine. I will make love to you._

 _Then most certainly, I shall not leave._

His eyes darkened, and she could feel his despair. _If I make love to you, Regina, you will die._

 _You can't know that._

 _I know it. Leave, Regina, while I still have the strength to let you leave me._

She couldn't, wouldn't accept that loving Robin would cause her death. Slowly, fully aware of what she was inviting, she kissed him on the mouth. The immediate leap of his hunger answered a craving deep inside of her. For a few seconds, Robin held himself aloof. Then, with a silent cry that echoed and reechoed inside her mind, he pulled her down on top of him on the bed, ravishing her body and soul with the passionate urgency of his kiss.

His hands tore at her clothes, ripping open ribbons that closed the gathered neck and tugging at the garment over her head. She opened her mind to him as he laid bare her body, letting him feel her passion and her love. In return, he gave her a glimpse of the driving, hammering pulse of his need for her.

His hands swept down over her body, shaping her breasts, pressing against the curve of her hips, seeking out the innermost secrets of her body. Her need for him was soft, liquid molten. His need for her was hot, savage, all-consuming. She drew his feelings deep inside her, drowning in the red mist of his desire. Her pleasure twisted and curled around him until it was impossible to distinguish between his driving need and her yearning ache.

Her body was flame. His was steel. Together they had the power to create something new and wonderful. Robin nuzzled her neck, ecstatic as he felt her jugular vein swell from the impact of the fluid dripping from his burgeoning sacs. She was moist, hot, ready for him, begging for fulfillment, for the climax she senses hovering just beyond the horizon. He felt her need with the same burning urgency that he felt his own, a glorious aphrodisiac, an exquisite mingling of the senses. Male, female. Hard, soft. Need, desire.

In a moment, after a second or two more of blissful anticipation, he would slip his fangs into her throat. Then, when her body was safely prepared with mating fluid, he would enter her.

 _Yes, she said. I am ready._

 _No, I will not permit myself to hurt you!_

 _But, Robin._

 _No! I have sufficient guilt to bear without the addition of your death._ With an anguished cry Robin threw himself off her and staggered away from the bed, leaning against the wall as his body shuddered under the impact of a denial almost too agonizing to bear. The arousal of all his mating instincts, without any hope of appeasement, left him hovering barely on the right side of sanity.

"Get out of this room," he said hoarsely, not trusting himself to survive the intimacy of speaking without words. "Go now, Regina." His command was thick and slurred with the impediment of swollen sacs and distended fangs. The sound of his own voice disgusted him. He was a beast, a creature of mindless lusts, incapable of controlling the reactions of his own body. And Regina was in mortal danger of becoming the next victim of those hideous lusts.

He turned away, unable to bear the sight of her leaving. Moments later, he heard the sounds of her getting up from the bed, but to his horror, he realized she was coming toward him, not leaving the room. He swung around, torn between the utter humiliation of letting her see his hideous, contorted features, and the desperate need to convince her that she must flee.

When she didn't immediately run screaming from the room, he bared his teeth in a frightening parody of the wild animal that he was. His fangs, glistening with mating fluid, protruded with pointed savagery over his lower lip.

Regina continued to approach him, and he felt no wave of revulsion flowing from her. Didn't she realize that his needs were bestial, appalling, consuming? That he was a monster who would tear out her throat at the first opportunity?

Even now, despite his fangs, his lust was so out of control that his fangs tingles and ached with the longing to sink into the beautiful smooth flesh of her neck. His sacs swelled painfully, completing the distortion of his features. He could guess how totally and utterly repulsive he must appear. Oddly, Regina looked at him without flinching, and her eyes were soft and misty, almost as if she found him desirable, although he knew that could be no more than the reflection of his own wistful fantasy. Her hair, the color of black silk, tumbled around her shoulders in a thick, tempting curtain. Robin closed his eyes, imaging that wonderful hair falling around his face in a soft cloud as he sank his fangs into her throat.

The image was too wonderful, too tempting, to be borne. Robin clung to the last, desperate reserves of his self-control, waiting with clenched fists and pounding heart for Regina to come to her senses and flee from the room.

"I love you, Robin." She spoke out loud because he still had just enough control to deny her access to his mind. As she spoke, she lifted her hair, piling it high on her head and holding it there with one hand. Then she closed the last few inches of space between them, and tilted her head to one side, exposing the exquisite perfection of her neck and shoulders.

"I want you," she said. "I want us to join blood and body and soul as Vampires are meant to join." Absurdly, crazily, she sounded as if she meant it.

The world spun and tilted around him _. What are you doing_? He demanded, incapable of adding sound to the question even though he dreaded the consequences of giving her access to his mind. _By all that is holy, Regina, have you gone mad?_

 _Perhaps,_ she said _. Mad with desire, love._

Desire? She couldn't possibly mean that she genuinely desired him. Tolerated him, perhaps, for some crazy reason, but she could not feel desire for a creature who drowned his lust in blood. While he gulped and panted, she raised her hand and slowly pressed it against his mouth.

The ecstasy of her touch was indescribable. Robin's eyes drifted closed and he rubbed his fangs down and forth against the palm of her hand. The points were razor sharp, ready for insertion, but she held her hand very still, so he was able to avoid injuring her. She leaned close against him, her breasts pressed against his chest. Impossible as it seemed, he felt no hint of fear when he held her, only desire.

Overwhelmed by tenderness, he caressed the delicate length of her spine and the curve of her hips, all the while nuzzling his fangs against the softness of her hands. Her love flowed back to him. Before he could stop to question how it had happened, he was in bed again, lying next to Regina. And his fully distended fangs were no more than a quarter of an inch from her jugular vein.

For an endless moment, he stared at the woman he had come to love, and she stared back at him, her gaze clear and unafraid. He wanted to mate with her more than he wanted life itself. He wanted to drink her blood and give her the life-restoring fluid from his sacs in exchange. He wanted to ease into the tightness of her body, and pour out his seed from which his son would grow. But he was a Vampire, and she was human, and that meant they could never mate.

Slowly, wearily, he raised his head, turning away from temptation, striving to find the strength to move out of the bed for a second and final time. The effort to break away from her brought less physical anguish than he had expected. The sense of emotional loss was more devastating than he could have imagined in a thousand nightmares.

Finally, he managed to get his feet onto the floor and drag himself upright. Regina gave a little whimper of disappointment and frustration. When he tried to stand, she reached up and clasped her hands at the back of his neck, pulling him back down onto the bed.

 _I want you,_ she said. _When will you get it into your stubborn Vampire head that I WANT YOU!_

She had no idea what she was saying, of course. Shaking, his body convulsing, Robin managed to keep his head averted, shielded from any glimpse of her. But she made a small, impatient sound and grasped his head between her hands, forcing his head down toward her neck until the incredible, unforgettable moment when the points of his fangs actually slid into her jugular vein at her command.

As soon as he felt her blood against the sensitive tips of his fangs, he was lost. Desire streaked through his body in an arrow of hot, burning fire. Regina's desire, Robin realized incredulously, mingled in glorious confusion with his own. His fangs sank deeper into her throat and the warm salt taste of blood filled his mouth. Regina's blood.

The blood of the woman he loved.

His sacs burst instantly, sending mating fluid streaming into the tiny openings he had made in Regina's throat. His whole body pulsed with the power of her blood, and her body thrummed with the erotic impact of his mating fluid.

Passion, need, hunger, love, washed over him in giant waves. His hunger, her need, and their love.

Regina stirred restlessly beneath him, giving a new direction to his desire even as his fangs slowly retracted and his sacs shriveled. He fought to control the wild elation roaring through his veins so that they could prolong their pleasure, but when she arched her hips beneath him in an instinctive urge to join with him more closely, his control shattered.

Robin pushed inside her suddenly, shaft gliding through her walls until his body couldn't go any deeper. He moaned softly and gripped her tighter, steadying himself. He had to hold still for a few moments, letting her get used to his body and lovemaking.

Regina threw her head back, amazed at the sensation one stroke could bring; he pulled himself out slowly and thrust forward again, sending a wave of pleasure rolling through her. He held himself above her as he stroked, watching her breasts bounce and her hips buck to meet his movements – movements that were already becoming quick and frantic.

"Robin!" she called, feeling herself tighten around him as his thickness massaged each and every nerve ending she had. "Oh my god, Robin…"

He responded by slamming his hips into hers, the slick head of his member crashing over her senses, each thrust sending her into paroxysms of joy. One hand was gently cupping her breast, thumbing and tweaking her nipple; every few moments his mouth would dip down to suck the areola, deepening the pleasure radiating from her core.

Regina wasn't sure whose orgasm started first; she wasn't even sure how long they were making love – she just knew that suddenly, she was screaming, ecstasy seizing every cell in her body, while Robin pounded into her, shouting her name. She locked lips with him as her pleasure reached its peak, and a moment later, a strangled cry told her he'd reached his. Robin exploded inside her, still stroking weakly as they retreated from the edge of ecstasy.

The shivers of her pleasure, his pleasure, finally ceased. He withdrew from her, shoulders heaving, and turned to look at her, terrified of what he might see…

 _You are alive,_ he said in wonder _. I didn't kill you._

 _Are you quite sure_? _I was convinced that I had gone to heaven._ _I'm so sleepy right now._ He heard laughter in her voice. She yawned again, and he stared at her in disbelief. The world had turned on its axis, the stars had moved, and she was yawning? _Is that all you have to say_? He demanded. _That you are sleepy?_

Her laughter rippled over him like a warm silken covering _. I could tell you that you are a magnificent lover, that I am happier than I have ever been in my life before, that I feel totally and utterly fulfilled. But that might make you too conceited, Robin So I shall go to sleep instead._

He ran the tips of his fangs over her throat. The tiny incisions where his fangs had cut into her flesh were already healed, restored by the balm of his mating fluid _. I must have hurt you,_ he said. _I cut into your flesh._

 _You know that you didn't hurt me in the least. You felt my feelings, just as I shared yours._

He took her into his arms, unable to believe the joy to be found in the simple act of holding his mate close to his heart _. I love you, Regina,_ he said, amazed that it had taken him so many years to understand such a simple concept. His mouth curved unbidden into a purely human smile. _I love you, so much Regina. I love you._

She yawned. _I love you, too, Robin._

His euphoria was shaken by a sudden fear that was all the more terrible because it contrasted to starkly with the joy they had been feeling.

 _What is it?_ Regina shook off her lethargy and sat up in the bed _. For God's sake, Robin, what's wrong?_

 _I've made you pregnant,_ he said gloomily _. Eleven months from now you will give birth to my son._

 _Oh, is that all?_ Regina flopped back against the pillow _. Well, you know, I'm sorry if you feel trapped, but you would have had to marry me anyway._

Robin was exasperated by her refusal to acknowledge the danger that she faced in giving birth to a Vampire baby. He focused on his exasperation, because if he allowed himself to swell on what was ahead, he knew he would be frenzied, desperate, at the prospect of losing her during the birth.

Regina laid her hand against his cheek in a reassuring caress. _Don't worry so much, Robin. You were convinced that I would die if you made love to me. Instead, I experienced greater joy than I had ever known. Can you not have faith that I will give birth to your child safely? And that we will go on to have many more of your Vampire sons?_

For her sake, he wanted to believe that happiness was possible, and so he held her close and whispered the words he knew she wanted to hear. Regina had already brought him on miracle. Could he not allow himself to hope that she would survive the ordeal of bearing his son?

Regina kissed him softly, lingeringly, lovingly. _Yes,_ she said. _Trust me, Robin. You can believe in miracles because together we will make them come true._

Robin strode into the drawing room, his face twisted into one of those strange contortions that humans adopted to signify concern. Daniel and some other members of the staff were there, waiting on any news of the newest arrival as Regina had gone into labor a few hours ago. Regina had married their lord several months ago and they had adapted to her being the new lady quite well, as she treated them as her equals, and not just servants.

"Regina has gone into the final stage of labor." Robin said, his voice harsh with worry. "Anna has sent me from the room."

"Anna has children of her own," Daniel said mildly. "She will know what to do, and I am sure she will send for you if there is any need."

Robin paced the room, back and forth. "I felt her pain. She's only been in labor for eight hours and already the pain was almost her capacity to endure. My son was tearing her apart."

"Women suffer with every type of birth." Daniel offered the best comfort that he could.

"I left her only because she said my fear was making her pain worse." Robin turned to him, his eyes haunted. "If she dies, I don't know how I shall continue to live."

A servant appeared in the doorway. "Anna requests that you come at once, Excellency. The countess is asking for you."

Robin was out of the room and halfway to the stairs before the servant had finished speaking. Daniel and the others waited downstairs for news. Minutes later, Robin burst out of his wife's room, his expression distraught and his hair standing on end in wild disorder.

"My child is born!" Robin yelled. "Regina has safely delivered our baby and she is alive and well!"

"Congratulations, my lord." Daniel and the others called back to him. "What's his name?"

"I don't know." Robin still appeared half demented, and the others chuckled.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of time to consider names." Another servant spoke up.

"If you would all like to come up and see the baby, Regina would love it." Robin said.

They all headed upstairs, and once they entered the room, they found the new mother of the newborn propped up against half a dozen pillows. The baby was cradled in her arms, and sleeping the peaceful sleep of the very newborn.

"Congratulations, my lady," Daniel spoke for the group. "We are all very proud of you."

Robin sat down on the bed and put his arm around his wife and child. "How do you all like my offspring?"

"A splendid little fellow." Another servant said. "Will his name start with a R as well? Like Richard, Randall?"

Robin and Regina exchanged glances. "They are all excellent names, but there is one small problem with your suggestions."

"And what is that, may we ask?"

"Our baby is a girl," Robin said. "Regina and I have produced a baby daughter. Her name is Hope."

After all the holding of the newborn little girl was over, Robin and Regina shared a private moment with their little one. Robin kissed Regina's cheek, his heart overflowing with love and gratitude. "I have so much to be thankful for." He said. "The mother of my child, my wife, and the other half of my soul."

Regina laid the tips of her fingers against his lips.

 _We have each other,_ she said _. For the rest of our lives, we have each other._

 ** _*_ The End***

 _ **HAPPY HALLOWEEN!**_


End file.
